Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold, left, talks with Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher during the first round of the National Hockey League entry draft on Friday June, 24, 2011 in St. Paul, Minn. (Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

Wild owner Craig Leipold vowed to win a Stanley Cup during his tenure, assuring business leaders the club is positioned to compete for an NHL championship for up to seven years while hedging his bets on this season.

“I see a Stanley Cup championship. My hope is that it happens soon,” Leipold told the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, March 13. “It may not be this year. It may not be next year. But the beautiful thing is we have a window now that’s not going to close in two or three years. We’ve got a window that’s going to be opened up for five, six or seven years.”

Leipold boasted during his speech about 102 percent-capacity sellouts at the Xcel Energy Center for the Wild coming out of a damaging lockout, plus merchandise sales among the NHL’s top five teams, thanks to interest piqued by last summer’s signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

But in an interview afterward, the team’s majority stakeholder checked any hubris from that $196 million free-agency investment at the doors of the St. Paul Hotel, acknowledging he was pleased with how the Wild have played in recent weeks but cautioning against planning any ticker-tape parades.

“You don’t want to say this year’s the year we’re going to win the Stanley Cup since we haven’t been to the playoffs in four years,” Leipold said. “Let’s take it a step at a time. I’m trying to just be realistic. Do we want to win it this year? I guess we do. Of course we do. But it’s not something that’s going to necessarily happen overnight. We’ve got these young guys coming up, and we think they’re going to be a big part of winning the Stanley Cup.”

Just past the halfway mark of this truncated season, the Wild are 13-10-2, good for 28 points. Entering play Wednesday, they were tied with San Jose and Nashville for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference — but only two points behind first-place Vancouver in the Northwest Division and a top-three postseason seed.

Even with Tuesday’s 2-1 home loss to Anaheim, Minnesota is 9-5-1 over its past 15 games.

“We’re playing really well,” Leipold said. “The team is coming together, no question. I guess the only scary part is that everybody’s within two or three points. You win one night, you’re in third place. You lose, you’re in eighth place. So it moves quickly. But I think the team’s come together at the right time.”

The lockout cost the Wild about $17 million. To turn a profit this season, Leipold said, the team needs extra gate revenue from a deep playoff run, which teams do not have to share with the players. But he insisted the long-term stability from the new collective bargaining agreement, plus an improved, in-demand product, should offset short-term losses.

“Sure, you need to make a playoff run, like all teams, and this is a shortened year. It’s an unusual year because of the lockout,” he said. “But we’re in a position that we have not been in at least the five years that I’ve been here. Much better position.”

In April 2008, Leipold and minority owner Phil Falcone purchased a 95 percent stake in the franchise, which founding owner Bob Naegele Jr. sold for $225 million.

Falcone, a Chisholm, Minn., native and former Harvard hockey player, made his fortune on Wall Street betting against subprime mortgages. The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Falcone and his hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, on civil charges that he allegedly manipulated the market and defrauded investors by appropriating client assets to pay his taxes.

In an unrelated court case, Falcone’s firm reportedly invested $3 billion in LightSquared, a broadband startup that filed for bankruptcy last year after federal regulators declined to approve the high-speed wireless network.

Falcone, who owns about 39 percent of the Wild, has denied any wrongdoing in court filings and is fighting the SEC’s lawsuit in New York.

Leipold was asked whether the Wild’s financial position is at risk because of Falcone’s legal troubles.

“No, I’m not concerned about Phil,” Leipold said. “He’s still a good partner.”

Brian Murphy has been on the Pioneer Press sports staff since 2000, migrating from the Detroit Free Press, where he covered police, courts and sports for four years. Murphy was the Minnesota Wild/NHL beat writer from 2002 to 2008 and has covered the Vikings as a reporter and columnist since 2009. Murphy is a Detroit native and Wayne State University graduate.

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